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Guillermo Del Toro's Adaptation Of Monster Will Not Air On HBO

Fans of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster -- both the manga and the anime series -- may want to brace themselves for this disappointing piece of news: a live-action television series was set to be developed by Guillermo del Toro for HBO, but del Toro revealed to Latino Review that “he is currently pitching his planned adaptation of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster suspense manga to other companies.”

HBO is out of the running for the adaption, which is sad news for fans eagerly awaiting the show, including me. Del Toro revealed that he has finished writing a set of episodes for the show -- episodes that he’ll pitch to other companies sometime next year. Monster’s track record with live-action adaptation has not been stellar thus far. Monster was initially set to be a feature film with New Line Cinema receiving the rights to the series back in 2005. Batman: Gotham Knight’s Josh Olson was brought onboard, but the film eventually outgrew plans for just a feature film. After those developments fell through halfway, Del Toro “convinced Urasawa to allow him to tackle the project.”

Viz Media, which published the Monster manga, describes the story as:

Everyone faces uncertainty at some point in their lives. Even a brilliant surgeon like Kenzo Tenma is no exception. But there’s no way he could have known that his decision to stop chasing professional success and instead concentrate on his oath to save peoples’ lives would result in the birth of an abomination. The questions of good and evil now take on a terrifyingly real dimension.

Years later, in Germany during the tumultuous post-reunification period, middle-aged childless couples are being killed one after another. The serial killer’s identity is known. The reasons why he kills are not. Dr. Tenma sets out on a journey to find the killer’s twin sister, who may hold some clues to solving the enigma of the “Monster.”

Monster is a thrilling, gripping and enthralling tale that needs to be told in a live-action adaptation; a television series is the best possible way to adapt such an amazing series. I remain hopeful that a network will pick up Monster – Showtime perhaps? After all, Showtime is the home of Dexter and Penny Dreadful; both series somewhat resemble Monster’s dark vibes. Monster will fit right in, and I’m more than confident it will excel as a series.